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Physical therapy in H untington's disease – toward objective assessments?
Author(s) -
Bohlen S.,
Ekwall C.,
Hellström K.,
Vesterlin H.,
Björnefur M.,
Wiklund L.,
Reilmann R.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
european journal of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.881
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1468-1331
pISSN - 1351-5101
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-1331.2012.03760.x
Subject(s) - medicine , gait , physical therapy , clinical trial , disease , physical medicine and rehabilitation , randomized controlled trial , psychological intervention , psychiatry
Background and purpose Physical therapy is recommended for the treatment of H untington's disease, but reliable studies investigating its efficacy are almost non‐existent. This may in part be due to the lack of suitable outcome measures. Therefore, we investigated the applicability of novel quantitative and objective assessments of motor dysfunction in the evaluation of physical therapy interventions aimed at improving gait and posture. Methods Twelve patients with H untington disease received a predefined twice‐weekly intervention focusing on posture and gait over 6 weeks. The GAITR ite mat and a force plate were used for objective and quantitative assessments. The U nified H untingtons D isease R ating S cale T otal M otor S core, the timed U p & G o test, and the B erg B alance S cale were used as clinical outcome measures. Results Significant improvements were seen in GAITR ite measures after therapy. Improvements were also seen in the U p & G o test and B erg B alance S cale, whereas force plate measures and T otal M otor S cores did not change. Conclusions The results suggest that physical therapy has a positive effect on gait in H untington's disease. The study shows that objective and quantitative measures of gait and posture may serve as endpoints in trials assessing the efficacy of physical therapy. They should be explored further in larger trials applying a randomized controlled setting.